Polaroid Stories
Play an adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses
The Holyoke Community College Theater Department will present its fall 2024 production, Polaroid Stories, by Naomi Iizuka, Nov. 21-23, with guest director Rose Schwietz Malla.
The show will be performed each day at 7:30 p.m. with an additional matinee on Sat., Nov. 23, at 2 p.m. All performances will be in the Leslie Phillips Theater on the second floor of HCC’s Fine & Performing Arts Building. The Friday, Nov. 22, show will be ASL-interpreted.
Tickets available one hour before show at the Leslie Phillips Box Office or by calling 413.552.2528 to reserve: $5 (HCC students, faculty, staff); $10 (general admission); $8 (seniors).
This show is appropriate for audience members 13 years of age and older.
Contains: Strong language, references to prostitution and sexual violence, staged violence.
The Plot:
The dangerous world of ancient Greek mythology meets the rough lives of youth living on the streets, where every moment is swimming with drugs and bumping with rave music. Polaroid Stories takes the hopes and drives of young runaways, addicts, and prostitutes, intertwines them with such mythological figures as Zeus and Persephone, and elevates them to a new light. Despite their harsh conditions, characters like Echo and Narcissus, Orpheus and Eurydice, and even the raucous Dionysus carve their own paths in a world that seems fated against them. Pulsating with an ethereal, nostalgic, and rave-worthy soundscape, this play and its rough edges subverts our expectations, douses us in poetic, curse-filled language, and breaks and remakes our hearts.
Background:
Originally commissioned by En Garde Arts, Polaroid Stories had its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New Plays in 1997. The play is an adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, incorporating source material from interviews with Minneapolis street kids. Playwright Naomi Iizuka is a distinguished professor of playwriting and head of graduate playwriting at Univeristy of California San Diego.
This show is appropriate for audience members 13 years of age and older.
Contains: Strong language, references to prostitution and sexual violence, staged violence.
The run time is approximately two hours with one intermission
The Cast:
D (Dionysus): Manuel Morales*
Eurydice: Arianna Davila
Persephone / Semele: Rae Roqué
Orpheus: Zachary Ciano
Philomel: Tatianna Green
SKINHEADgirl: Alison Smythe
Echo: Nicole Anderson
Narcissus: Eliezer Baez
SKINHEADboy: Benjamin Richards
G (a.k.a. Zeus, Hades): Brandon Rodriguez
Young Eurydice: Maryliz Maldonado
Production Staff:
Director: Rose Schwietz Malla
Technical Director: Stephen Bailey* (HCC Staff)
Designer / Production Manager: Matthew Whiton (HCC Faculty)
Admin. Asst., Box Office Manager, Program Designer: Mary Starzyk (HCC Staff)
Sound Designer: Isabel Teixiera
Video Production: Makayla Nelson
Stage Manager: Benji Marconi
Assistant Stage Manager: Zack Clapp
Light Board Operator: Levi Edwards
Sound Board Operator: Aolanis Figueroa Pinto
Run Crew / Video Operator: Gabriel Reyes
Run Crew: Shaina O’Malley
* Denotes HCC Alum
